System and method to accept third-party payments

Abstract

A real-time third-party payment system accepts payments to a lender from third-party merchants in real-time. The payment system may receive real-time payment information from the third-party, and various services within the payment system validate the customer account information, create a payment, store the payment in a database, and post the payment to a real-time ledger. The payment system may also receive an end-of-day file including file-based payment information. The file-based payment information may be verified against the real-time payments stored in the database. Upon validation, the payment system creates a file based payment and posts the file-based payment to a file-based ledger. The payment system may detect fraud, errors, and other discrepancies in real-time payments and make corrections based on settlement rules and self-healing rules provided by the third-party.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A system for processing payments received through a third-party, the system comprising:
 a real-time electronic ledger configured to record a real-time payment; 
 a file-based electronic ledger configured to record a file-based payment; 
 one or more Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), configured to:
 validate a customer's account information with a lender, and 
 receive payment information from the third-party, 
 wherein the one or more APIs are configured to be compatible with two or more different real-time service frameworks; 
 
 a vendor payments service configured to:
 receive the payment information from the third-party through the one or more APIs, 
 create the real-time payment, based on the payment information, according to a common payment format associated with the lender, 
 store the real-time payment in a database, 
 receive an End of Day (EOD) file comprising the file-based payment, and 
 perform EOD settlement, the EOD settlement comprising verifying the file-based payment against the real-time payment stored in the database; 
 
 a payment posting service configured to:
 receive the real-time payment from the vendor payments service, 
 post the real-time payment to the real-time electronic ledger, 
 receive the EOD file from the vendor payments service, and 
 post the file-based payment to the file-based electronic ledger; 
 
 a data lake service configured to:
 provide access to aggregated payment data for performing analysis on payments, 
 track the payments from multiple third-parties in real-time across multiple payment channels, and 
 enable the multiple third-parties to measure performance indicators related to performance of the system at any point in time. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the vendor payments service is further configured to:
 receive a payment modification of the real-time payment through the one or more APIs; 
 validate the payment modification by identifying the real-time payment corresponding to the payment modification in the database; and 
 send the payment modification to the payment posting service, 
 wherein the payment posting service is further configured to post the payment modification to the real-time electronic ledger. 
 
     
     
       3. The system of  claim 2 , wherein the payment modification comprises a payment cancellation, a partial reversal, a chargeback, or a reinstatement. 
     
     
       4. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the performance of the EOD settlement further comprises:
 performing self-healing in response to detecting a mismatch between the EOD file and the database; and 
 in response to self-healing failure, reverting the real-time payment from the real-time electronic ledger, and sending a notification to the third-party. 
 
     
     
       5. The system of  claim 1 , further comprising an onboarding service for configuring a new third-party for real-time payments, the onboarding service configured to:
 receive, from the new third-party, one or more selections identifying:
 real-time service framework; 
 one or more payment information fields of the one or more APIs; 
 one or more payment channels comprising at least one of an interactive voice response channel, a mobile channel, or a web channel; 
 at least one of the one or more payment channels as a discrepancy reconciliation channel; 
 self-healing rules comprising a duplicate entry rule, and a file transmission latency rule; 
 an EOD file transmission time; and 
 one or more settlement preferences; and 
 
 configure the vendor payments service to:
 receive the payment information from the new third-party through an API, among the one or more APIs, compatible with the identified real-time service framework; 
 translate the payment information to the common payment format associated with the lender based on the one or more selections received from the new third-party; and 
 receive the EOD file at the EOD file transmission time; and 
 perform the EOD settlement according to the one or more settlement preferences of the new third-party. 
 
 
     
     
       6. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the performance of the EOD settlement further comprises:
 detecting fraudulent payments; and 
 preventing posting of the fraudulent payments. 
 
     
     
       7. The system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 an aggregator service configured to store, in a data lake, the real-time payment, and the posting of the real-time payment, 
 wherein, the aggregator service is configured to receive the real-time payment and the posting of the real-time payment from the vendor payments service through an aggregator stream. 
 
     
     
       8. The system of  claim 7 , wherein the aggregator service is further configured to analyze the data lake; and
 perform, based on the analysis, one or more of: detecting fraud, detecting bad payment behavior, measuring key performance indicators, visualizing payment statistics by channel or by third-party, and generating alerts. 
 
     
     
       9. A method for processing a transaction request received through a third-party, the method comprising:
 receiving account information, corresponding to a customer of a lender, from the third-party using a real-time service framework; 
 validating the account information with the lender; 
 receiving payment information, associated with the account information, from the third-party using the real-time service framework; 
 creating a real-time payment, based on the payment information, according to a common payment format associated with the lender; 
 storing the real-time payment in a database; 
 posting the real-time payment to a real-time electronic ledger; 
 receiving an End of Day (EOD) file comprising a file-based payment; 
 performing EOD settlement, the EOD settlement comprising verifying the file-based payment against the real-time payment stored in the database; 
 posting the file-based payment to a file-based electronic ledger; 
 providing access to aggregated payment data for performing analysis on payments; 
 tracking the payments from multiple third-parties in real-time across multiple payment channels; and 
 enabling the multiple third-parties to measure performance indicators related to performance of the processing of the transaction request at any point in time. 
 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 receiving a payment modification of the real-time payment through one or more APIs; 
 validating the payment modification by identifying the real-time payment corresponding to the payment modification in the database; and 
 posting the payment modification to the real-time electronic ledger. 
 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 9 , wherein the performance of the EOD settlement further comprises:
 performing self-healing in response to detecting a mismatch between the EOD file and the database; and 
 in response to self-healing failure, reverting the real-time payment from the real-time electronic ledger, and sending a notification to the third-party. 
 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 receiving, from a new third-party, one or more selections identifying:
 a real-time service framework; 
 
 one or more payment information fields of one or more APIs; 
 one or more payment channels comprising at least one of an interactive voice response channel, a mobile channel, or a web channel; 
 at least one of the one or more payment channels as a discrepancy reconciliation channel; 
 self-healing rules comprising a duplicate entry rule, and a file transmission latency rule; 
 an EOD file transmission time; and 
 one or more settlement preferences; and 
 configuring a vendor payments service based on the real-time service framework, the one or more payment information fields, the one or more payment channels, the discrepancy reconciliation channel, the self-healing rules, the EOD file transmission time, and the one or more settlement preferences. 
 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 9 , wherein the performing of the EOD settlement further comprises:
 detecting fraudulent payments; and 
 preventing posting of the fraudulent payments. 
 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 storing the real-time payment in a data lake through an aggregator stream; 
 analyzing the data lake; and 
 performing, based on the analysis, one or more of: detecting fraud, detecting bad payment behavior, measuring key performance indicators, visualizing payment statistics by channel or by third-party, and generating alerts. 
 
     
     
       15. A non-transitory computer readable device storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform method steps of:
 receiving account information, corresponding to a customer of a lender, from a third-party using a real-time service framework; 
 validating the account information with the lender; 
 receiving payment information, associated with the account information, from the third-party using the real-time service framework; 
 creating a real-time payment, based on the payment information, according to a common payment format associated with the lender; 
 storing the real-time payment in a database; 
 posting the real-time payment to a real-time electronic ledger; 
 receiving an End of Day (EOD) file comprising a file-based payment; 
 performing EOD settlement, the EOD settlement comprising verifying the file-based payment against the real-time payment stored in the database; 
 posting the file-based payment to a file-based electronic ledger; 
 providing access to aggregated payment data for performing analysis on payments; 
 tracking the payments from multiple third-parties in real-time across multiple payment channels; and 
 enabling the multiple third-parties to measure performance indicators related to performance of the processor at any point in time. 
 
     
     
       16. The non-transitory computer readable device of  claim 15  storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to further perform the method steps of:
 receiving a payment modification of the real-time payment through one or more APIs; 
 validating the payment modification by identifying the real-time payment corresponding to the payment modification in the database; and 
 posting the payment modification to the real-time electronic ledger. 
 
     
     
       17. The non-transitory computer readable device of  claim 15  storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to further perform the method steps of:
 performing self-healing in response to detecting a mismatch between the EOD file and the database; and 
 in response to self-healing failure, reverting the real-time payment from the real-time electronic ledger, and sending a notification to the third-party. 
 
     
     
       18. The non-transitory computer readable device of  claim 15  storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to further perform the method steps of:
 receiving, from a new third-party, one or more selections identifying:
 a real-time service framework; 
 one or more payment information fields of one or more APIs; 
 one or more payment channels comprising at least one of an interactive voice response channel, a mobile channel, or a web channel; 
 at least one of the one or more payment channels as a discrepancy reconciliation channel; 
 self-healing rules comprising a duplicate entry rule, and a file transmission latency rule; 
 an EOD file transmission time; and 
 one or more settlement preferences; and 
 
 configuring a vendor payments service based on the real-time service framework, the one or more payment information fields, the one or more payment channels, the discrepancy reconciliation channel, the self-healing rules, the EOD file transmission time, and the one or more settlement preferences. 
 
     
     
       19. The non-transitory computer readable device of  claim 15  storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to further perform the method steps of:
 detecting fraudulent payments; and 
 preventing posting of the fraudulent payments. 
 
     
     
       20. The non-transitory computer readable device of  claim 15  storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to further perform the method steps of:
 storing the real-time payment in a data lake through an aggregator stream; 
 analyzing the data lake; and 
 performing, based on the analysis, one or more of: detecting fraud, detecting bad payment behavior, measuring key performance indicators, visualizing payment statistics by channel or by third-party, and generating alerts.